Turkey to extend state of emergency

ANKARA: Turkey will extend a state of emergency imposed after the July 2016 coup attempt for another three months, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters following a cabinet meeting, Bozdag, who is also the government spokesman, said Turkey’s National Security Council (MGK) would discuss the extension during its next meeting and added that the cabinet would later approve the move.

“The state of emergency will be extended again,” Bozdag told reporters following a cabinet meeting. He said the national security council was due to discuss the extension and that the cabinet would later approve it.

The current period of the emergency rule is scheduled to end on January 19. With the latest three-month extension, Turkey will have completed more than a year and a half under emergency rule, which was imposed on July 20, 2016.

The government says the purges are necessary to confront security challenges facing Turkey and to root out supporters of the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen who it says was behind the coup attempt. Gulen has denied any involvement.